The present invention is related to a method for controlling a wind energy plant with plural control units, which perform control tasks in the wind energy plant. For the operation of a wind energy plant, one central or plural decentral control units can be provided. For example, decentral control units can be provided for the pitch control of the blades, a main converter control, an azimuth angle control, a cooling system control, a lubrication control and so on. Optionally, a condition monitoring system (CMS) may also be provided, which has to detect a necessary maintenance operation in good time.
From DE 103 00 174 B3, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a wind energy plant with plural components is known, which each one possess sensors and/or actuators and feature a control device. In this, the control devices are connected to a data network. Via this data network, the control devices can exchange signals with each other, concerning operating conditions of the respective controlled components, sensor values and/or control signals for other components. Thus, a central control is omitted in the known wind energy plant. Instead, the control takes place on the basis of the individual components. In this component based control of the wind energy plant, the communication between the components takes place independently from specific parameters. An advantage of this approach is that components of different manufacturers can be exchanged without great expense.
A problem arises when there is a failure of a control unit. In such a case, according to the circumstances, the control tasks to be performed by the control unit can no more be exerted. This may affect the operation of the wind energy plant.
Departing from the clarified state of the art, the present invention is therefore based on the objective to provide a method of the kind mentioned at the beginning, in which the availability of the wind energy plant and of its components is always at hand.